So, Guitar Hero: Metallica came out today and as always (since Guitar Hero III) I was skeptical about its level of quality. I know its still really early, and I’ve only logged about three hours of play time, but I think Neversoft finally got it right, mostly.
At first play, you realize that the developers are huge fans of Metallica. The intro movie is excellent, with references to all of Metallica’s albums, and the first time the ‘tallica boys take the stage (in slow motion mind you) you actually feel like you’ve been dropped into a Metallica concert. The tone is darker and much more metal (not cheesy metal like GH3). Now, I have liked all the GH games, but there is no arguing that when Neversoft took over development, the spark of the series faded a bit. The characters and locations just didn’t pop like they did in first two games. I can’t say much positive about the character creater in both World Tour and Metallica, but I CAN say that the venues in GH:M are much more exciting and have the feel of a huge rock concert. The character models of the band members are much more accurate than those in World Tour (Ozzy just looked silly). While, the characters still seem soulless, at least that’s what Lars Ulrich is supposed to look like. Its kind of a bummer that they couldn’t, or didn’t try to, get Jason Newstead and/or the likeness of Cliff Burton for the game. It would be great to have had multiple models for the band throughout their career. How awesome would it be to play as James Hetfield with a mullet.
Left to Right (Lars Ulrich (soul intact), Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield(w/o mullet), and that funny looking new guy)
The setlist is pretty solid with most of it coming from Metallica’s early career (St. Anger is almost completely omitted…as it should be). There are some notable omissions, like most of the hits from the “Load” album, “I Disappear” from Mission Impossible 2, and Metallica versions of “Turn the Page”, “Am I Evil?” and “Tuesday’s Gone”. I also have to praise Neversoft for not recycling an already used Foo Fighters song, and instead, going with one of my all time favorites “Stacked Actors”.
They’ve added a in-song star meter, like Rock Band, to see how many stars you have collected during the song and nearly every peice of art in the game has some sort of reference to Metallica on it. I haven’t picked up my drums yet to see how hard its going to be, but I have my extra foot pedal if I really want to get ballsy. It’s really sad to say this, but so far, Guitar Hero:Metallica is what World Tour should have been.